ance, in "Troilus and Cressid," Chaucer
observes on the enthusiastic belief of converts, the
"strongest-faithed" of men, as he understands! And how fine is the
saying as to the suspiciousness characteristic of lewd, (i.e.
ignorant,) people, that to things which are made more subtly

Than they can in their lewdness comprehend,

they gladly give the worst interpretation which suggests itself! How
appositely the "Canon's Yeoman" describes the arrogance of those who
are too clever by half; "when a man has an over-great wit," he says,
"it very often chances to him to misuse it"! And with how ripe a
wisdom, combined with ethics of true gentleness, the honest "Franklin,"
at the opening of his "Tale," discourses on the uses and the beauty of
long-suffering:--

For one thing, sires, safely dare I say,
That friends the one the other must obey,
If they will longe holde company.
Love will not be constrained by mastery.
When mastery comes, the god of love anon
Beateth his wings--and, farewell! he is gone.
Love is a thing as any spirit free.
Women desire, by nature, liberty,
And not to be constrained as a thrall,
And so do men, if I the truth say shall.
Look, who that is most patient in love,
He is at his advantage all above.
A virtue high is patience, certain,
Because it vanquisheth, as clerks explain,
Things to which rigour never could attain.
For every word men should not chide and plain;
Learn ye to suffer, or else, so may I go,
Ye shall it learn, whether ye will or no.
For in this world certain no wight there is
Who neither doth nor saith some time amiss.
Sickness or ire, or constellation,
Wine, woe, or changing of complexion,
Causeth full oft to do amiss or speak.
For every wrong men may not vengeance wreak:
After a time there must be temperance
With every wight that knows self-governance.

It was by virtue of his power of observing and drawing character, above
all, that Chaucer became the true predecessor of two several growths in
our literature, in both of which characterisation forms a most
important element,--it might perhaps be truly said, the element which
surpasses all others in importance. From this point of view the
dramatic poets of the Elizabethan age remain unequalled by any other
school or group of dramatists, and the English novelists of the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by the representatives of any other
development of prose-fiction.